The Shore Beyond Reach

Arrodes answered swiftly this time, but its answer disappointed Angel:

"Sorry, respected Mistress. Divination is, in essence, communication with the Spirit World. Using what you know, you seek the answer you need within it. Any information left in the Spirit World, whether from the past, the present, or the future, can be obtained by some means."

But... Angel knew Arrodes had more to say, so she did not interrupt.

Sure enough, after those words faded, the lines rearranged themselves into another passage:

"However, the Spirit World contains no information from before the Chaos Era. Any divination concerning an earlier age will fail outright. This may be because no information from that time was preserved in the Spirit World."

So the Spirit World is like a supercomputer that stores all the world's information, but it wasn't switched on before the First Epoch?

Angel tried to interpret Arrodes's answer in terms she could understand.

"Then, do you think..." After a moment, she asked another question, heedless of the fact that she already owed it one. "Could another highly advanced civilization have existed before the First Epoch?"

Several lines of steadily shrinking words appeared on the dressing mirror:

"I'm very sorry, but I don't know the answer. If you wish to find out, you could ask the Seven Lights of the Spirit World. If the Spirit World holds the answer, they may be the only ones who know it."

The Seven Lights of the Spirit World... Orange Light Hilarion and his companions? They were said to possess a status close to that of gods and to have appeared alongside the Spirit World. They were probably among the most knowledgeable beings in existence. Hilarion had also shown a measure of goodwill toward both her and Klein... As Angel considered this, she noticed that the